Philip Greenspun Professions : Computer Scientist Born : September 28, 1963 Browse All Authors Top 22 quotes by Philip Greenspun Although the Buddhists will tell you that desire is the root of suffering, my personal experience leads me to point the finger at system administration. Philip Greenspun buddhist suffering roots The devil is real. He lives inside C programs. Philip Greenspun program devil real Most people who are rich chose their parents wisely. Philip Greenspun rich parent people Frame is a good enough piece of software that there are actually rewards to taking an intelligent and formal approach to your problem. But if you want to be stupid, you can think of Frame as a version of Microsoft Word with most of the bugs taken out. Philip Greenspun taken stupid thinking When you choose a language, youre also choosing a community. The programmers youll be able to hire to work on a Java project wont be as smart as the ones you could get to work on a project written in Python. And the quality of your hackers probably matters more than the language you choose. Though, frankly, the fact that good hackers prefer Python to Java should tell you something about the relative merits of those languages. Philip Greenspun smart community python Everything that I've learned about computers at MIT I have boiled down into three principles: Unix: You think it won't work, but if you find the right wizard, they can make it work. Macintosh: You think it will work, but it won't. PC/Windows: You think it won't work, and it won't. Philip Greenspun three principles thinking I don't myself believe in astrology. However, I think that's because I'm a Libra and Libras are always skeptical. Philip Greenspun astrology believe thinking Progress in computer science is made with the distribution of revolutionary software systems and the publication of revolutionary books. We don't need a fancy information system to alert us to these grand events; they will hit us in the face. Another good excuse for ignoring the literature is that, since everyone has strong beliefs about fundamentals but can't support those beliefs rationally or consistently convince non-believers, computer science is actually a religion. Philip Greenspun support strong book SQL, Lisp, and Haskell are the only programming languages that I've seen where one spends more time thinking than typing. Philip Greenspun haskell language thinking If I'd had more time or been a better writer, I would have tried to put the same ideas and experiences into a novel. But I didn't so I slapped it up on the Web. Philip Greenspun more-time novel ideas Start by putting yourself in your users' shoes. Why are they coming to your site? If you look at most Web sites, you'd presume that the answer is "User is extremely bored and wishes to stare at a blank screen for several minutes while a flashing icon loads, then stare at the flashing icon for a few more minutes." Philip Greenspun icons shoes bored Remember that in 1993 a company with a bad Web site needed an engineer. Today, a company with a bad Web site needs a psychiatrist. Philip Greenspun remember today needs Like most people in Academia, my vision of the future is the same as the average industry person's vision of five years ago. Philip Greenspun visions-of-the-future average years Greenspun's Tenth Rule of Programming: any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc informally-specified bug-ridden slow implementation of half of Common Lisp. Philip Greenspun bugs half common The book the Ziff folks sent me as an example of their art was 'Late Night VRML 2.0 with Java,' 700 pages + CD-ROM, published February 1997. I was personally acquainted with more movie stars than people who might conceivably have wanted to buy this book or any book like it. Philip Greenspun stars book art Even the lamest page can be saved by collaboration. Philip Greenspun collaboration saved pages We're not a vocational school. If someone wants to get a high-paying job, I would hope that there are easier ways to do it than working through a formal computer science curriculum. Philip Greenspun want jobs school We worried about competitors, but it was an unreasonable fear. As a friend once pointed out, most gunshot wounds are self-inflicted. Philip Greenspun gunshots worried self Even within traditional universities there has always been debate about whether it wouldn't be better to focus on only one course at a time. Philip Greenspun university debate focus An unmarried adult who cannot navigate the welfare system has no choice but to work, but a married working parent is constantly evaluating the relative merits of staying home with the kids versus bringing home that second paycheck. Philip Greenspun choice parent work home Similar Authors Bill Joy computer-scientist Butler Lampson computer-scientist Brian Reid computer-scientist Brian Kernighan computer-scientist Andrew S. Tanenbaum computer-scientist Andy Hertzfeld computer-scientist All Authors
